Cyeus bussey



(No Model.)

Ev J BROOKS POST OFFICE HAND STAMP.

No. 451,887. Patented May 5 1891.

NITED STATES EDWVARD J. BROOKS, OF EAST ORANGE, NE\V JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO E. J. BROOKS & COMPANY, OF NE\V YORK, N. Y.

POST-OFFICE HAND-STAM P.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 451,887, dated May 5, 1891.

' Application filedli'ebruary 9,1891. Serial No. 380,745. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. BROOKS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Post-Office l land stamps, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in the hand-stamps now in use by the Post-Office Department for canceling postage-stamps and postmarking mail, and primarily to those stamps which combine stamp-canceling and postmarking or dating devices, hereinafter termed, respectively, the canceler and the dater? The invention consists in certain novel combinations of parts or features of construction, hereinafter set forth and claimed, and in an improved double stamp embodying the same; and its objects are, first, to provide the dater with its permanent lettering for the individual post-office, or a portion thereof, in such a manner as to insure at once superior lettering and equal or reduced cost; secondly, to adapt the canceler to be made with a molded face on a durable elastic body, so as to insure distinct and ineffaceable canceling impressions, and, thirdly, to combine such advantages in a simple and durable double stamp.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this specification as part thereof.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a perspective view of an improved double stamp illustrating this invention. Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a part thereof detached. Fig. 2 represents a longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 represents a section on the line 33, Fig. 2. Fig. .4 is an end view of the head or body portion of an improved double stamp of a different pattern. Fig. 5 represents a longitudinal section of an improved dater embodied in a single stamp. Fig. 5* represents two magnified fragmentary sections illustrating an alternative detail. Fig. 6 represents a longitudinal section of the face end of a modified dater. Figs. 7 and 8 are face views of double and single stamps of another pattern embodying the same invention, in part; and Fig. 9 represents a longitudinal section of the last-named single stamp, Fig. 8.

Like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

The improved double hand-stamp represented by Figs. 1 to'S, inclusive, is composed of a central wooden handle A, a steel crossbar B, having a tang b, Fig. 2, bywhich the handle is attached, a dater O, the body of which is integral with one end of said cross bar, a canceler D, attached to the other end of the crossbar B, and a screw E, Fig. 2, inserted from the back of the cross-bar B into the upper end of the brass shell of said canceler D, to so attach the-latter. Said permanent lettering of the dater 0, being in the example Phila, Pa, for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is engraved or produced in any approved way upon a separate steel ring c, (shown detached by Fig. 1*,) and is thus adapted to be of a better quality than heretofore with finer and deeper letters,-

and at the same time as cheap as, if not cheaper than, the customary lettering engraved on the body of the dater- The ring 0 is fitted to an annular recess 0 in the face end of the body of the dater, as shown in Fig. 2, and may be riveted or otherwise fastened in place in any approved manner. Rivets 7', parallel with the face of the dater, are represented by dotted lines in Fig. 3. Instead of thus using one or more separate rivets for holding the ring 0 in place, I propose to provide the face of the dater witha thin annular projection 19, Fig. 5*, that can be, matted down over the inner edge of the ring so as to fasten the latter, as represented at m in the lower sectional view. The one-part body of the-dater is constructed with the customary central recess 0 which is rectangular or substantially rectangular in cross section, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3.

In order to provide a smooth, true, and durable abutment c for the heel ends of the changeable type t to rest upon, I undercut the inner or upper end of said recess 0 as represented in Figs. 2 and 3, and at the same time finish the entire area of said abutment by a milling operation that is readily performed and does not materially add to the cost of manufacture. Said abutment thus formed is composed of the solid steel of the body of the dater, and is consequently free from liability to become uneven by wear. A thumb-screw 3 provides, by way of illustration, for fastening the changeable type in place in an approved way. The customary marginal projection c on the face of the dater for printing the border of the postmark is preferably formed on the body of the dater, as heretofore. The shell of the canceler D is preferably made of brass, as above, and is in the form of a cylindrical cup, the face of this particular canceler being round,having a central screw-hole d in its upper or closed end communicating with the interior of the shell and an internal anchoring-groove 61 parallel with the open end of the shell. To complete the canceler, said shell is placed with its open end downward into a suitable mold having upon its upturned bottom a sunken counterpart of the desired canceling impression and liquid rollercomposition-- such as is used in making printers inking rolls or preferably a mixture of the same or of any suitable gelatine compound with corkdust is poured through the screw-hole d into the interior of the shell and its said anchoring-groove d and upon the bottom of the mold, so as to make the remainder of the canceler of such elastic composition or mixture and especially its protruding portion and face, thelatter being thus readily and cheaply molded and provided with any desired design or figure. The elastic composition or mixture is readily cut out of the screw-hole d, and the completed canceler D is then attached to the cross-bar B by the screw E, as in the drawings.

In the modification illustrated by Fig. 4 the canceler D is of the prescribed alternative oval shape in cross-section. Otherwise the modified stamp is substantially identical with the double stamp already described.

The lettering-ring c, as well as the changeable typet of the dater, and the elastic filling of the canceler are omitted in the figure, so as to show more clearly the annular recess 0 and central recess 0 of the dater and the cup of the canceler.

In the modification illustrated by Fig. 5 the improved dater O, as shown in Figs. 1 to 3 and Fig. 4, as above, is simply embodied in a single hand-stamp-that is to say, the cross-bar B is omitted and the handle-tang b is integral with the steel body of the dater.

The lettering-ring e of each of the stamps above described is intended to be made of steel, either endless, as shown, or of one or more pieces bent into shape from a straight bar, as illustrated by the dotted joint line at j in Fig. -1 In the form last described the lettered barmay be produced in the most rapid and inexpensive way by means of dierolls. Otherwise the ring is intended to be swaged and lettered by means of suitable dies.

In the modification illustrated by Fig. 6 the annular recess 0 is cut deeper and pro vided with lateral anchoring'grooves c and the lettering-ring c is out within said recess and grooves, and within a suitable moldingdie, of type-metal or any suitable alloy. The cost of manufacture may thus be still more greatly reduced.

In the modifications illustrated by Figs. 7, 8, and 9 the separate lettering-ring c is used alone in hand-stamps which are otherwise of an ordinary construction. Apart from said separate ring 0 these hand-stamps form no part of my invention, and need not therefore be more particularly described.

Other like modifications will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art, and details which have not been specified may be of any approved description.

Having thus described the said improvement, I claim as my invention and desire to patent under this specification- 1. In a post-office hand-stamp, a dater having its permanent lettering or a portion thereof on a separate ring immovably fastened within an annular recess in the face end of the body of the dater, substantially as hereinbefore specified.

2. In a post-office hand-stamp, a canceler composed of a cup-shaped metallic shell provided with a screw-hole in its closed end and with an internal anchoring-groove, and an elastic inner and face portion of roller-composition or the like, cast fast within said shell, substantially as hereinbefore specified.

3. An improved postoffice hand-stamp composed of a central non-metallic handle, a cross-bar of steel provided with the handletang, a dater the body of which is integral with one end of said cross-bar and is provided with a separate ring bearing the permanent lettering or a portion thereof and with changeable dating-type and a fastening therefor, acanceler composed of a cup-shaped metallic shell and an elastic inner and face portion of roller-composition or the like, and a screw attaching said canceler to the other end of said cross-bar, substantially as hereinbefore specified.

ED\VARD J. BROOKS.

Witnesses:

ll. L. O. WENK, L. F. lIovEY.

It is hereby certified that in Letters Patent No. 451,887, granted May 5, 1891 upon the application of Edward J. Brooks, of East Orange, New Jersey, for an improvement in Post-Office Hand Stamps, an error appears requiring the following correction: In line 68, page 2, of the printed specification, the Word cut should read cast; and that the Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein to make the same conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed, countersigned, and sealed this 12th day of May, A. D. 1891.

CYRUS BUSSEY, Assistant Secretary of the Interior.

[SEAL] Countersigned G. E. MITcHELL,

Commissioner of Patents. 

